Equilibrium

Balance is often promoted as something to aspire to in our lives. Give everything equal attention and spread yourself evenly over all topics of interest. The thing about that notion, is that it does not appear to exist in nature. Our bodies in particular, are far from balanced with the environment. If we were, things would not go so well for us.

There is a branch of physics called non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Quite the title, but essentially it is the study of systems that do not reach a balanced state within their environment. These systems are always in flux, and they maintain their energetic states reliably. We are one of those systems. Think about your body temperature, it fluctuates very little because the temperature needed to perform all of your biological activities can only vary a small amount before things go awry.

Movement tells a similar story. We store and release energy very effectively, never reaching a state of equilibrium, because if we did we would cease to move. A requirement for movement is being in the state of non-equilibrium. The imbalances that we develop are somewhat normal, if not advantageous in certain circumstances. Now, if imbalances go unchecked, they can cause problems and again that returns to that idea of being in flux. You must be able to course correct, but the underlying strategy is that attention shifts, biasing certain movement patterns in any given moment.

Balance is not necessarily something to strive for. There may be moments where things do appear to be equal, and usually that is a transitional time. We need non-uniformity in order to operate within the natural world. Regarding movement, the non-uniform strategy can be performance enhancing, but without the ability to divert your attention and eventually shift your center of gravity things may start to hurt.

Austin Ulrich, Physical Therapist